


My Blood

by girlslikegirlsandbooks



Series: Halcyon [2]
Category: The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble Collection, F/F, Fluff, Marriage Proposal, One Shot, Romance, Songfic, part 2 of halcyon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24761677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlslikegirlsandbooks/pseuds/girlslikegirlsandbooks
Summary: “Aline was not certain she had ever been this vulnerable with anyone before. She knew she had a reputation for a muscle-brained warrior, and she certainly did nothing to dispute this view of her. As a female shadowhunter, strength did more favors for her than softness. To be vulnerable with anyone was not something she ever expected of herself, and it took a step outside of her comfort zone.It was not hard to be vulnerable with Helen.”Post City of Heavenly Fire, pre- the Dark Artifices and Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy. Aline frets about the prospect of proposing to Helen. Part 2 of the Heline one shot collection based off of the album Halcyon by Ellie Goulding.
Relationships: Helen Blackthorn/Aline Penhallow
Series: Halcyon [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1789753
Kudos: 17





	My Blood

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any suggestions for other ships in the shadowhunter universe that you want written, feel free to comment on this story or send me an ask on tumblr @ clizzylightwoods or girlslikegirlsandbooks. I will be making moodboards too for each of these fics, and when each series is complete, I’ll compile the moodboards and put the link up on the last fic! Thank you so much for reading this!!!

_ “And God knows, I’m not dying but I bleed now. _

_ And God knows, it’s the only way to heal now.” _

_ Aline _

Aline was not certain she had ever been this vulnerable with anyone before. She knew she had a reputation for a muscle-brained warrior, and she certainly did nothing to dispute this view of her. As a female shadowhunter, strength did more favors for her than softness. To be vulnerable with anyone was not something she ever expected of herself, and it took a step outside of her comfort zone.

It was not hard to be vulnerable with Helen. 

Helen was kind, even she had acquired a no-nonsense reputation in order to show the world that she was a serious Nephilim, just as good as any of them, even with having a high fae mother. Despite that reputation, anyone who just  _ tried  _ to look would be able to see the softness in the Blackthorn girl, who viewed her family above anything else. 

Once Aline had seen that side of her, she could never look away from Helen. Fortunately, she did not want to look away.

Aline was not a huge fan of the exile, but she did not for one second blame Helen or resent her for it. She  _ did _ hold, however, a certain level of resentment for the clave, despite being daughter of the Consul. She was certain her mother resented Helen’s exiles just as much (if not more) than Aline, for Jia had lost her daughter due to it. Aline liked to think if her mother had been tasked to make the same decision, she would have chosen to follow the person she loved. She hoped that she made her mother proud. 

When shadowhunters exchanged family rings, it was a serious matter. Aline wore the Blackthorn family ring with pride, and there was always a jolt of tenderness upon seeing the Penhallow ring resting on Helen’s hands. Still, at this point, they were not engaged. 

A fact that Aline desperately wanted to remedy. 

The problem, more than anything, lay in that she was not certain how she was supposed to propose. She wanted to ask somebody about it, but she was not certain how she could do that without Helen finding out. She knew on some level that Helen was not going to judge her for having feelings, but still, she was desperately afraid that Helen would hear her planning an engagement and say something like, “oh, haha, you thought that I wanted  _ that _ ? Hard pass.”

Aline was almost completely certain that their feelings were mutual. Helen regularly said that she was in love with her, but Aline imagined that this is how a lot of people reacted when they first allowed themselves to be vulnerable with someone else. Not that that made it any less daunting, but at least she didn’t feel like she was completely alone in her feelings. 

More than the thought of laying out her feelings and saying to Helen that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with her, there was the fact that it seemed like any time she  _ tried,  _ Helen would immediately change the subject. They would be telling each other how much they loved one another, and then Aline would start to mention that she at least  _ wanted  _ to be married, but before she could change the subject, Helen would start kissing her. Unfortunately, Helen was very talented at distracting Aline. 

A feeling that she rarely felt anymore had started to bubble up inside of her. She wanted to ask her mother. Her mother was smart, she would know how to help and be able to give her some advice. Still, each time she called her mother, she could not bring up what she wanted to ask. There was a fear she still frequently felt when it came to expressing her deepest emotions. 

She suspected that her mother knew something was wrong though. Her mother  _ was  _ smart. Clearly, she would be able to deduce her daughter was feeling upset about something that she wasn’t saying out loud, whether or not she was able to tell why she was upset, that remained uncertain.

“Aline?” Helen called out, snapping her out of her thoughts.

“Yeah, babe?” she yelled back, digging her nails subconsciously into little crescent moons against her palms. 

Helen walked into their shared room, blonde curls bunched up in one hand. The points of her ears were clearly visible as she did so. “Do you have any spare ponytail holders? I can’t find any of mine.”

Aline’s lips curled. “If you didn’t just pull them off and throw them wherever, that wouldn’t really be a problem, dear.”

Helen scowled halfheartedly, eyebrows scrunched together. The expression endeared Aline to her, and she took pity and pulled off a ponytail holder that was against her wrist and handed it to her girlfriend. 

“You’re a lifesaver,” Helen said, snatching it up and tying her hair back in one fluid motion. 

“Isn’t that kind of our job description?” Aline asked. Helen only offered a smile in turn before she told Aline that she might be late for dinner because of some problems with the wards. Aline nodded, grateful. She figured if Helen were gone, she would be able to call her mother and talk to her without Helen overhearing.

Helen left shortly after, and Aline felt guilty for being grateful that she was going to be working late. If there were any issues at Wrangel Island, Helen was always thrown under the bus, undoubtedly her “faults” being used by clave members as a reason for suspecting her loyalties to Faerie.

Aline shook off her guilt, though, wanting to work on the task at hand. She checked around to make sure Helen was for sure gone before she dialed the number to Jia Penhallow, the one that would work for her even in Idris.

Her mother picked up on the first ring. “Hello?”

“Mom?” Aline asked, worried at the frantic note to her mother’s voice. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, Aline! Yes, I’m fine. Sorry, I just got out of a really long discussion with the clave. I didn’t mean to sound on edge. Are you okay? Is everything alright on Wrangel Island?”

“Yeah, Mom, I’m fine. Well, er, kind of.”   
  


The frantic note in Jia’s voice came back with a vengeance. “What’s wrong, Aline? Do you need help? I think I could portal over there and get a couple-”

“Oh, no, Mom!” Aline quickly cut Jia off. She did not think it was good to let her spiral any longer for that sentence. “It’s not anything like that…”

“Oh,” Jia breathed. “Thank the Angel. What is wrong, though?”

“I was wondering…” Aline huffed out a breath, feeling a few errant strands of hair lifting up from it. “Could you… um, could you give me some, er… advice?”

Jia’s voice sounded confused as she responded, “Of course, Aline, what is the problem?”

Aline sighed. “Mom, is it too soon to propose to Helen?”

She could practically hear her mother frowning. “I don’t think so, Aline, shadowhunters tend to commit much earlier than mundanes, you know, considering the dangers of our jobs and everything. But, Aline, are you sure you want to propose?”

Aline glared. “Mom, I’m certain I want to marry her.”

“Well, that’s not precisely what I asked, is it? I meant, do you want to be the one that proposes?” Jia asked.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Well, I guess I always pictured it as Helen being the one to propose…”

“What is  _ that  _ supposed to mean?”

“Well, you are sort of.... fragile… is all.” 

Aline’s forehead felt pain from how much her eyebrows raised. “ _ What? _ ”

“Er, well… Helen is a very strong girl.”

“I am an  _ excellent  _ shadowhunter, thank you very-”

“You misunderstand,” Jia cut in. “You are a wonderful soldier, and I could not be more proud. It’s just you have always kept your cards very close to your chest, so to speak.You do not often put yourself out there with your deepest emotions. You’re very blunt about what you think, but when it comes to what you  _ feel,  _ you’re a closed book.”

Aline frowned. She did not appreciate her mother understanding her this well. 

“Give it a week or two,” Jia urged. “If you are so nervous, you’re calling me, then maybe you need to wait a bit. And I’m sorry I have to cut this short, but I am a little tied up with work at this particular moment. I will call you back pretty soon, though. I love you, Aline. I’m so proud of you.”

Jia hung up before Aline could even close her mouth from the shock of her mother telling her she was proud. It was not that her mother never said it, but still it made her shocked to hear it. Shadowhunters did not often think it was necessary to express pride in their children, lest they get too confident. 

“I love you too, Mom,” she said, into the silence.

***

Aline had fallen asleep pretty soon after her mother called, not having anything much better to do and figuring it might help her warring emotions. 

She was startled awake by the sound of her phone ringing. Helen’s name popped up against the background. She grabbed the phone, pulling off her blankets and reaching for her gear with her other hand. 

“How many seraph blades should I bring?” Aline asked as she clicked “accept call” and snapped on her gear belt. 

“What?” Helen asked. “No, Aline, it’s not like that. I just need your help over here. You don’t need gear for this.”

Aline frowned, having already put on half her gear at this point. Putting on gear obsessively quickly was a trait that she liked to brag about to other shadowhunters sometimes. 

“Well, I’m gonna wear at least the belt and pants,” Aline told her. “I do not feel like changing at this ungodly hour.”

Helen laughed, “Aline, I think it is only eight PM.”

“Exactly,” Aline said. 

“Well, wear your nice coat then,” Helen told her. 

“Fuck!” Aline groaned. “How many clave members are down there? I swear, sometimes, I wonder if there are any Eidolon demons amongst them, but then again, they shouldn’t be able to be in Idris, should they?”

Helen didn’t respond to her query, “I love you! See you soon!”

Aline grumbled as she was hung up on for the second time that day, but she did at least put on her nice coat and tidy her hair up just a bit. The clave members tended to respect a shadowhunter more when they were most put together, a fact that was vexing considering they fought demons for a living, which was a dirty job. 

By the time she had reached where Helen did most of her work, she gasped out loud. The clave was not there. But Helen had decorated the place to the best of her ability in a frozen wasteland, and she had written a message with some rocks from the near frozen beach on the sand. 

“Helen, what are you-”

“Aline Penhallow,” Helen started, pointed ears turning red as she dropped some index cards where she had clearly written a speech. “Fuck. I wasn’t supposed to drop those. Uh.”

“Helen?”

“Aline, I’m in love with you,” Helen blurted. Aline opened her mouth, but Helen quickly hurried on. “I have been for a while. I have also been certain that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you almost as long as I have known that. I know I have kind of avoided talking about this before, and I’m sorry. I just had to make sure that my siblings would be able to come to my wedding, Aline. I could not bear them to miss it, and I’ve been talking to your mom. We’ve been brainstorming with one another ways that we could do it, and we finally found a way that would appease the clave. And, now that I have that sorted… Aline, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And I hope that you feel the same way. I want us to get married and when this exile is over, I want to run the Los Angeles Institute together. Maybe we could even have kids of our own, but if not, I have a lot of siblings in desperate need of a mother figure. It would be even better if they had two. Sorry, just… What I’m saying… I mean, what I’m  _ asking  _ is. Aline Penhallow, will you marry me?”

Aline gasped. She thought on some level that the reason Helen was avoiding the subject was she didn’t want this, didn’t want marriage. She had horribly misjudged the situation. 

“Aline?” Helen asked, nervously, seemingly trying to cool down the blush of her ears by patting them. 

“You’ve been talking to  _ my mom _ ?”

“Yeah, she was actually the one to tell me to do it,” Helen said, confused. “I was not planning to until after exile, but she told me if I didn’t propose soon enough, she would exile me to space. Which, I’m still not sure if that is something she can do. The idea sounds terrifying though. You must’ve gotten the horrifying threat gene from her.”

Aline frowned, wanting to apologize for her mother. There was, however, a much more pressing thing. 

“Helen, are you sure you want to get married?”

Helen looked as angry as Aline imagined she had when her mother had asked earlier that day. “Yes, Aline. I want to marry you.”

“I want to marry you too, Helen,” Aline whispered. 

Helen ran to her then, kissing her hastily. Aline returned her embrace with enthusiasm before pulling away.

“My mother really told you you had to propose?”

“She had a bet going, I think, that I would be the one to propose. I don’t know.” 

Aline was too happy to object.

**Author's Note:**

> I will be doing more wlw as well as mlm fics from the shadowhunter universe, with each ship having a different album for inspiration. My goal is to upload as frequently as possible, and at least have made a significant dent by the end of pride month. For just a quick idea of what’s to come, here’s the ship plus the album I will use to inspire the one-shot collections. I have also looked into writing for a few more wlw and mlm ships in the shadowhunter universe not in this list.  
> 1\. Malec: Lungs by Florence + the Machine  
> 2\. Lilia (Lily and Maia): Melodrama by Lorde  
> 3\. Kierarktina (Cristina, Mark, and Kieran): How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful by Florence + the Machine  
> 4\. Clizzy: High As Hope by Florence + the Machine   
> 5\. Kitty (Kit and Ty): Wasteland, Baby! by Hozier  
> 6\. Thomastair (Thomas and Alastair): Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming by M83  
> 7\. Herongraystairs: Ceremonials by Florence + the Machine  
> 8\. Ariadne and Anna: Synthetica by Metric


End file.
